Investigating the performance of continuous weighting functions in the integration of exploration data for mineral potential modeling using artificial neural networks, geometric average and fuzzy gamma operators

In mineral exploration programs, reducing uncertainty and increasing exploration success have always been challenging issues. To modulate the above-mentioned uncertainty and increase exploration accomplishment, integration, and prospectivity analysis techniques are used for mineral exploration targeting. This paper aims to model the mineral potential of porphyry copper deposits in the Jiroft region, Kerman province. To achieve this goal and overcome the aforementioned issues resulting from the operation of complex ore-forming geological processes, continuous weighting methods through logistic functions were used while training points and analyst’s opinions were not contributed to the weighting procedure. Then, to generate exploration targets, the weighted layers were combined with three different integration methods namely, artificial neural network, geometric average, and fuzzy gamma operators. The comparison of the model obtained from the application of an artificial neural network with those obtained by the geometric average and the fuzzy gamma operators using prediction rate-area plots indicated that all the models have good overall performance and acceptable prediction rate. However, the performance of the artificial neural network model is slightly less than that of the other two models. Thus, the targets generated using the geometric average and fuzzy gamma operators are more reliable for planning further exploration programs.